Utah Southern Railroad Depot

Utah Southern Railroad Depot. . President Abraham Lincoln signed the pacific Railway Act into law on 1 July 1862 while the country was embroiled in civil war. The transcontinental railroad, built by the Central and Union Pacific Railroads, linked their roads at Promontory Summit in Utah in 1869. The Mormon Church-owned Utah Central Rail Road Company started construction southward from Ogden one week after the driving of the "Golden Spike." A year later Utah Central organizers incorporated the Utah Southern Railroad. A symbolic spike was driven by Brigham Young on 1 May 1871. The first train chugged into Lehi City on 27 September 1872. , The effect of the Utah Southern on Lehi was dramatic. For almost a year the town served as the terminus for the line. Teamsters and bullwackers transported goods to and from points south as well as timber and ores from the rich mines in American Fork Canyon and the Tintic District. Many local men found employment in the freighting and forwarding business. Dozens of saloons, boarding houses and shops sprang up along State Street. , From 1872-73 the American Fork Railroad operated a narrow-gauge branch feeder line on the Utah Southern grade between American Fork and Lehi. In 1881 the Utah Central, Utah Southern and Utah Southern Extension railroads were consolidated into the Utah Central Railway. In 1889 the line became part of the Union Pacific's Oregon Short Line and Utah Northern Railway Company. In 1897 the organization was renamed the Oregon Short Line Railroad. In 1902 it became part of the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. Since 1921 the line has remained part of the Union Pacific system , This Utah Southern Railroad Depot, the oldest restored railroad building in Utah and the only surviving depot of the Mormon railroad empire of the 1870s and 1880s, was restored in 2000 by the Lehi Historical Preservation Commission, a political subdivision of Lehi City Corporation. This station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.